The Song of Troy: The Iliad and the Odyssey (Archaic Period, Greece)
The Iliad (also called the Song of Ilion) is an
Epic poem in Attic (Athenian Greek) describing the preparation for, and a
period towards the end of, the siege of Ilios, also called Trōia (‘Troy’ in English).
Heroes and Gods, war on a grand scale and the men who would sacrifice everything for love. This is the oldest existing work
in Western Literature.Sample or buy one of the translations here
for less than USD $1.
It
includes squabbling amongst the Greeks, lots of
fighting on an Epic scale, intervention of the Gods and quite a lot of the back
story. It is difficult to summarize but here’s one summary https://www.cliffsnotes.com/literature/i/the-iliad/about-the-iliad.
The Iliad ends with the burial of Hector and is followed by its sequel the Odýsseia (Odyssey in English) which describes the struggles of Odysseus
(the Romans called him Ulyssēs)
to return home after the war. It is the Odýsseia that describes the fall of Troia.Get it here for less than a dollar US.
Both
poems are credited to Hómēros
(Homer). His name may mean he was a political hostage (or blind, and hence a
hostage to a guide) ... or maybe that was just his name.
Some
say Homer never lived at all or he was the head of a school of poets. Some
even claimed Ilios (‘Troy’ in
English) never existed, how this possibly could be so when the site (under the name Trōia) had continuous (modest) occupation and was
site of pilgrimage all the way through Greek and into Roman times was not explained.
We now know that it not only existed but was sacked
in about 1184 BC (which fits Homer's account) and we also know Homer’s
description is so accurate and detailed that he not only lived near the site of
Trōia, he wasn’t blind (at
least not for much of his life).
It’s not surprising that there is confusion.
If Homer lived, it was while Greece was struggling to recover from a period of Dark Ages following the
catastrophic Bronze Age Collapse caused by invasions and displacements of whole
peoples. There was famine, wars and widespread destruction not only in Greece
but touching as far away as Egypt. All the palace complexes of southern Greece were
burned. Some of the cities such as Athens, Sparta and Thebes were rebuilt from
the ashes, but others including the greatest city in Greece of that time,
Mukānai (Mykēnai to Homer, Mycenae in English) disappeared forever.
In addition, Homer
was describing events that occurred before
the collapse, involving the previous Mycenaean Greeks (in English named after their
greatest city) that Homer and other Greeks called the Achaeans (after one of their greatest tribes). Written record of his work had to wait maybe a century (for
writing to be re-invented, this time by borrowing the alphabet from the Phoenicians).
And yet it is a story that inflamed imaginations of men and women throughout the ages.
It also contains one of the greatest love stories of all time, centering on Paris and Helénē of Troy. As Christopher Marlowe said in Dr Faustus (1604): "Was this the face that launch'd a thousand ships/And burnt the topless towers of Ilium?"
It also contains one of the greatest love stories of all time, centering on Paris and Helénē of Troy. As Christopher Marlowe said in Dr Faustus (1604): "Was this the face that launch'd a thousand ships/And burnt the topless towers of Ilium?"
Including recently. Click here for trailerand a TV mini-series. Click here for trailer
Book 2 of my Paladin Series , the Defence of Troia sample or check it out on Amazon, is set in a much later period, the time of Philip of Macedonia.
It refers to the defence of a (mythical) Greek Troia by
Hakeem, the desert warlord (and his wife, Elana, the elvish queen). They not only have to face the great Athenian fleet, impossible odds, dark magic, unrest within the city and the unbeatable Macedonian army which is sure to follow. And, if you like the very best budget and free Epic Sword and Sorcery Kindle books,check out my selected blog list here.
